--- title: About the Founder | Incredible Years description: About Dr. Carolyn Webster-Stratton, founder of the Incredible Years. --- ## About the Founder Dr. Carolyn Webster-Stratton, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, is the founder of the Incredible Years® Series for Parents, Children, and Teachers. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and nurse practitioner. During her time at University of Washington, Dr. Webster-Stratton was Director of the UW Parenting Clinic. Forty three years ago she began developing and researching the Incredible Years programs. She has conducted numerous randomized control group studies to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programs for promoting social and emotional competence, school readiness skills and preventing conduct problems in high risk populations. She has also evaluated teacher, parent and child treatment programs for children diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder and ADHD. The Incredible Years programs have been delivered in more than twenty four countries. The Incredible Years Series include separate training programs, intervention manuals and DVDs for use by trained therapists, teachers and group leaders to promote children’s social competence, emotional regulation and problem solving skills and reduce their behavior problems. The objectives of these interventions are to help parents and teachers provide young children (0-12 years) with a strong emotional, social and academic foundation so as to achieve the longer term goal of reducing the development of depression, school drop out, violence, drug abuse and delinquency in later years. The ultimate objective is to enhance children’s ability to become socially and emotionally competent individuals who succeed in school. Dr. Webster-Stratton has published numerous scientific articles and chapters as well as three books for parents entitled, The Incredible Years: A Trouble Shooting Guide for Parents of Children Aged 3–8 Years, Incredible Babies: A Guide and Journal of Your Baby’s First Year, and Incredible Toddlers: A Guide and Journal of Your Toddler’s Discoveries. Additionally, she has written a book for parents and teachers, entitled Helping Preschool Children with Autism: Parents and Teachers as Partners, a book for teachers entitled, Incredible Teachers: Nurturing Children’s Social, Emotional and Academic Competence, a book for therapists entitled Collaborating with Parents to Reduce Children’s Behavior Problems, and four books for children concerning problem-solving, anger management and learning problems (Wally’s Detective Books). Finally, she has written a book summarizing the research of these programs and methods of program delivery, entitled The Incredible Years Parents, Teachers and Children’s Training Series: Program Content, Methods, Research and Dissemination. The program interventions have been translated into many languages and are being used in over 24 countries. The Incredible Years® Programs and Dr. Webster-Stratton have received numerous awards, listed below. ## Awards Greenslade Prize, Outstanding Graduate Nurse, University of Toronto, 1970 Provincial Grant to study in the United States, 1970-1972 Annual Fund Fellowship Award, University of Washington, 1979 Mortar Board, Margaret Hadley Scholarship, 1979 WCHEN Annual Award for Achievement for a New Researcher, 1980 Fellow in American Academy of Nurses, 1986-2007 Outstanding Alumna, Yale University School of Nursing, 1987 NIMH Research Scientist Development Award, 1992-2002 Recipient National Mental Health Assoc. Lela Rowland Prevention Award for Excellence in Prevention, 1997 Elected member-at-large Division 53 Clinical Child Psychology, 2002-2004 Outstanding Research Article in Journal of Child and Clinical Psychology, 2003 Fellow in American Psychological Society and Division of Clinical Child Psychology, 2003 Recipient University of Washington Annual Faculty Lectureship Award, 2006 Outstanding Alumna, School of Education, University of Washington, 2006 Fellow in Association for Psychological Science, 2009 Dale Richmond/Justin Coleman Lectureship Award (AAP). 2013 Doctor Honoris Causa, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, 2013 Yale School of Nursing – 90 Nurses for 90 Years, 2013 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Parenting and Families Special Interest Group Trailblazer Award, 2017 Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Distinguished Career Award, 2018   **Read More About Dr. Webster-Stratton:** - [Meet The Child Behaviour Guru Who Was ‘Ahead Of The Curve’](https://www.incredibleyears.com/hubfs/The%20Incredible%20Years-%20Resources%20and%20Files/Meet-the-child-behaviour-guru-who-was-E28098ahead-of-the-curve.pdf) - [Carolyn Webster-Stratton receives 2018 APA-SCCAP Distinguished Career Award](https://www.incredibleyears.com/hubfs/The%20Incredible%20Years-%20Resources%20and%20Files/Page-from-APA-Distinguished-Career-Div-53.pdf) - [Carolyn Webster-Stratton, Just an Ordinary Person?](https://www.incredibleyears.com/hubfs/The%20Incredible%20Years-%20Resources%20and%20Files/personal-profile-c-webster-stratton.pdf) - [Incredible Journey, Prevention Action, 2011](https://www.incredibleyears.com/hubfs/The%20Incredible%20Years-%20Resources%20and%20Files/news_incredible-journey-one-skinn_12-2011.pdf)   **Watch Dr. Webster-Stratton's Keynote Address to the International Congress on Evidence-based Parenting Support (I-CEPS):** - [40 Incredible Years: Multicultural Collaboration to Deliver the Incredible Years Programs to Promote Children's Well-Being](https://vimeo.com/834235874) ![](https://px.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=6009852&fmt=gif)